This weeks Thursday Night Football sees two AFC West rivals face off in what is more or less a dead rubber. Denver have won the division and will be in the playoffs. Oakland are playing for next years draft pick. Denver are tied with New England and Baltimore at 9-3 so the game will mean more to them as every victory increases their chance of a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
The Denver Broncos have had a great year and the move to bring Peyton Manning to Denver is now looking like a masterstroke. Manning didn't make a great start to his Denver career but seven wins in a row has more than made up for the 2-3 start. Manning's numbers are impressive and he is on pace for a career best in passing yards. His current average would leave him just shy of the 4700 yards he had in 2010. He should also post the second highest total touchdown passes of his career. He has 29 touchdowns with four games left and his second best season was 33 touchdown passes which he has done on three occasions. His pass completion percentage is currently 68% and his career best was 68.8% in 2009. For a quarterback to be getting close to career numbers at 36 years old is exceptional but to be doing it with a brand new team and after missing a season to what was a potentially career ending injury, is something only one of the truly great quarterbacks of all time could do.
Every great quarterback needs receivers who can catch the ball and Manning has that in abundance with the Broncos. Demaryius Thomas in particular has had a great season and he has already smashed his career best in every statistic. Eric Decker, Jacob Tamme and Brandon Stokley are also playing their part and Peyton Manning is making their jobs as easy as he possibly can.
The one weakness in Denver is the running game and they are averaging just over 100 yards per game. Their leading rusher, Willis McGahee is out injured and although he may be back later in the year, it would only be deep into the playoffs. The Broncos will have to find some sort of a running game to take the pressure off Peyton Manning or they will be out of the playoffs before he is back. Knowshon Moreno had a decent game against the Chiefs but in the playoffs, the Broncos won't be able to beat the best teams in the AFC unless they can get some help for Peyton Manning.
Defensively, the Broncos are up there with the best teams in the NFL. They are giving up just over 300 yards per game, they have sacked the opposing quarterback 38 times, which is 2nd in the NFL and they have 4 defensive touchdowns, which is 3rd in the NFL. Overall, the Broncos are a very serious contender. They were a playoff team last year with Tim Tebow at quarterback and even won their first game in the wildcard round over the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were comfortably beaten by the Patriots in the divisional round but they have significantly improved at quarterback and only time will tell if that is enough to take them to the next level.
Oakland have had a bad year. Things looked to be improving in Oakland recently with two consecutive 8-8 seasons but they have gone backwards and at 3-9 they are in position for a top 5 pick in the 2013 draft. They had a bad start and dropped to 1-4 but won two in a row to get back to 3-4 but they have lost five in a row since.
The Raiders have been very poor on defense and are giving up over 380 yards per game. They have had a lot of key players out through injury but the performances still haven't been good enough. The Raiders will pick early in the draft and most of the top guys are defensive players so they should receive a boost as long as they get their pick right.
The one positive for the Raiders this year has been the passing game. They are averaging just under 280 yards per game and rank 8th in the league. Carson Palmer has had a good year and should reach a career best in passing yards within the next two or three games. Tight end, Brandon Myers has been his go to guy and he has been supported by Denarius Moore, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Marcel Reece. The passing game is good fine and if the Raiders can hold onto everyone, the passing unit should be every bit as good next year.
The match up in this game favours the Broncos. As I've said, the Raiders only strength is passing but the Broncos have a good pass defense. The Broncos should be able to get their passing game going against a Raiders pass defense that ranks 25th in the NFL and should have too many weapons for a struggling Oakland Raiders.
Prediction - I can only see Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos picking up the win here.
No comments:
Post a Comment